ALEIX ESPARGARÓ, AFTER A PERFECT WEEKEND, FORCED TO STOP IN THE RACE

ALBESIANO: "LOST CHANCE AFTER SHOWING GREAT COMPETITIVENESS"

It was a finale that does not do justice to the commitment and potential Aleix Espargaró and Aprilia demonstrated at Barcelona. The Spanish rider was forced to abandon his home race before the end, during the eighth lap, after starting rather well from the second row of the grid, a spot he had earned yesterday with an excellent fifth place time in qualifying. A technical problem which is currently being assessed stopped him, but it does not overshadow the good work done by Aprilia Racing Team Gresini throughout the recent championship rounds. In particular, during the Spanish weekend Aleix and his RS-GP were consistently, and with a reassured naturalness, in the stop positions of every session.

Now the team is committed to continuing their work, also solving the inevitable problems that accompany development of the RS-GP project, completely new and still very young, but already capable of achieving an excellent competitive level. The round with the missing result has simply been postponed.

On the other hand, a poor feeling kept Sam Lowes from battling for the points zone, to which he had been close until a few laps from the end. The English rookie gathered a lot of experience in what may very well be the most complicated race of the season.

ALEIX ESPARGARO' "I am very disappointed right now. We did a great job throughout the weekend and today we had the pace to make a play at least for the top-5, maybe even something more. I had a good start, but as early as the first laps I realized that performance was not the same as in warm up. Obviously, I kept going until the bike stopped. A technical problem has stopped us early in two races where we were competitive. It is not pleasant, but these things happen in racing."

SAM LOWES "I accumulated most of the gap behind the points zone today in the last 4 laps. Unfortunately, I no longer had the right feeling to push, whereas up to that point the sensations had been good. It was not an easy weekend for us from many points of view, but finishing a difficult race like today does a lot for my experience as a MotoGP rider."

ROMANO ALBESIANO - APRILIA RACING MANAGER "Unfortunately, we missed a chance today after demonstrating that we were consistently competitive throughout the weekend. We still do not know the extent of the problem that stopped Aleix. We are already working to fully understand the problem and adopt any technical counter measures needed."

FAUSTO GRESINI - TEAM MANAGER "It is a pity. It's hard to say anything else. We had a practically perfect weekend and Aleix had the chance to aim for an extraordinary result. We are in a stage of tangible growth, but we are still not reaping what we deserve. We need to continue development. The RS-GP is still a work in progress and a hiccough or two are to be expected. It is only logical that in the heat of the moment this leaves a bitter taste in our mouth."